Product Description Debut album from London's Diagrams, the brainchild of Sam Genders (ex-Tunng, The Accidental). Genders' voice is immediately recognisable from his previous incarnations. Here, however, his warm vocal timbre is accompanied by electronic pop (such as in the title track), synth riffs and funkladen basslines (as in 'Antelope' and first single 'Tall Buildings'). Available on limited edition (500 copies for the UK) heavyweight vinyl (including download code), CD and download, 'Black Light' features artwork by Dalston-based artist Chrissie Abbott (Little Boots, Patrick Wolf). Review Diagrams is primarily the work of a bespectacled bloke from Streatham called Sam Genders, formerly of Tunng. Yes, he’s one of those bedroom tinkers, locking himself away to toy with ideas, writing melodies on his guitar and then breaking them up with programmed beats. The resulting sound is a minimal delight, with nods to the fragmented, jerky rhythms of Field Music, Metronomy and Broadcast, and – through Sam’s warm vocal – Elbow.That’s quite a list of comparisons, yet Genders holds his own among them. With the help of a few like minds, including Micachu and Fever Ray’s co-producer Subliminal Kid, he has burst out of his bedroom and crafted a debut album that sounds like much more than the work of just one man. Indeed, to embody Black Light live on stage, Diagrams has to become a nine-piece band.This is an album that wraps reassuring arms around you: while Genders enjoys experimenting with form, he also likes a delicate pop melody, making the pill incredibly easy to swallow. Over the bedrock of unpredictable, toe-tapping rhythms, Genders’ voice plots a steady course, often lingering on single, repeated lines: in the outro to Appetite, for example, he sings "no time like this time, no time" 11-and-a-half times in a row, but gets away with it because the sweeping orchestration is so lush that it’s like being lulled into a wonderful dream.Elsewhere, it’s impossible not to be reminded of Kings of Convenience as Tall Buildings skips along, while the ballad Peninsula marks the point when Genders sounds most like Guy Garvey as he picks out a pretty pattern on his acoustic guitar. And he’s as playful with his lyrics as with his music: while opener Ghost Lit paints an image of baking bread in the morning and drinking hot tea, Night All Night is altogether more warped, inviting you to "Fly silent to the icy mountain / Make circles with the lions there". If the music wasn’t so easy on the ear, you’d worry about his mental health or drug consumption.This combination of absurdity and accessibility makes Black Light a fascinating debut, and it marks Genders out as a solo talent to keep tabs on. --Mike Haydock Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off in a new window
S**T
It'll be a 'Marmite' thing. Two
Love it. This is a follow on from being a Tunng fan so it was inevitable that this and the other two albums would be added to my music player. Like most this music, it'll be a 'Marmite' thing.
J**S
Black Light
Never heard of Diagrams until this. Very good CD. Lovely tracks. Only fly in the ointment was the running time. 59+ minutes, of which 38 minutes were music and songs, but why have a final track with 21 minutes of run off? Was there some sort of artistic licence going on there? Didn't quite get that. Sorry.
S**T
Clever Pop
Diagrams is basically Sam Genders, formerly of Tunng. This is his first effort after leaving his former band after time out which included primary school teaching. There are ten tracks here (a hidden track right at the end of the wonderful Peninsula) all of which are clever pop tracks that sound somewhere between Hot Chip, Illinois era Sufjan Stevens and occasionally even elbow.The lyrics cover such obvious subject matter as Tall Buildings (which ends with the refrain Hexagon, Pentagon, Triangle, Square)and love. But the theme of mathematical constructs never seems far. Sometimes there is chanting such as the opening of Night all Night which contains the most instantly memorable moments on first listen. But this does get better with repeated listens. The eight bit sounding electronica of Antelope really does stand out after multiple listens. Peninsula sounds like it could fit on an Elbow album without any alteration at all really - its not up to their standards at times but its good nonetheless.It may be a little too knowing at times and might just not have the wow factor to launch it into the mainstream. However, this is a little gem of a debut album which works as a pop album with a bit of thought and a lot of attention put behind it. Definitely worth checking out.
J**S
A kaleidoscope of an album
I heard this without knowing anything about it, and instantly recognised the vocalist from Tunng. I quite liked Tunng at their best, but I always felt they had too many ideas going on at once and not all of them worked. A solo project from Sam Genders though, well, that could be worth investigating.And so it proves. Diagrams has the same lyrical surrealism, the sense of experimentation, but delivers it all with more focus and polish and a more electronic direction.Diagrams seems an apt name for the music, which is all about patterns and detail. Songs build from skittering drum loops and syncopated beats, stabs of strings and synth, repeated lyrics, until you could close your eyes and imagine the music visually, spiraling like a kaleidoscope.That sounds a bit mathematical, but the songs are grounded by Genders' soft voice, like Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals without the Welsh accent. It gives the album warmth and personality, while the cryptic lyrics lend it a sense of mystery and hint of darkness. There are some strong songs here too, Night all Night being the one that I find myself singing while doing the washing up.At nine tracks, the album wraps up without overstaying its welcome, and I hope that it isn't the last we hearfrom Diagrams.
